Browsing Posts in Sports

I know that this article is perhaps a few months behind the curve as far as recent events and “celebrity scandals” are concerned, but being an avid tennis aficionado and competitive player, I feel the need to comment on Agassi’s admission of recreational methamphetamine use in the late ’90s.

I started playing tennis around the age of 11, and within a couple of years had become a fairly decent tournament player for my age. This was during the late 1980s, just when a young Andre Agassi was coming on the scene and garnering fame more or less for his clothes and long hair more than for his actual tennis abilities. For the most part, I preferred to watch Stefan Edberg and Ivan Lendl for their playing style, but as far as flash and fashion, I adored Agassi and his loud color combinations. I suppose I bought into to the commercial hype as well–begging my parents to buy me the Nike shoes and clothes worn by Agassi– I had the same god-awful shorts Agassi is wearing in the picture above; but hey, it was the late 80s, it was cool then. continue reading…

So the thing to do when working on a [tennis racquet], as in any other task, is to cultivate the peace of mind which does not separate one’s self from one’s surroundings. When that is done successfully, then everything else follows naturally. Peace of mind produces right values, right values produce right thoughts. Right thoughts produce right actions and right actions produce work which will be a material reflection for others to see of the serenity at the center of it all. (Robert M. Pirsig)

When stringing a tennis racquet, my mind is at ease in the process. Or at least I would like to believe that. Sometimes my mind drifts to other places during the process. Perhaps a phone call while tying off a string or a doorbell or a tricky grommet. I suppose it would be the ultimate destination to be at one with the string, the racquet and the process. Every pass through the grommet, every pull of the tensioner, every weave of the cross string through the main–a natural and organic congruence of events transpiring; bringing about the perfect stringing job. String that will bring good fortune and happiness to the person who uses that string to make the perfect shot. continue reading…

My first exposure to nascar/stock-car racing came at the age of six. This was when one of the most underrated films ever made, Six Pack, was released. If one does not believe that Kenny Rogers’ striking and moving portrayal of down and out stock-car driver “Brewster Baker” was an awe-inspiring tour-de-force of cinematic history, then perhaps one needs to develop a more articulate cinematic palate such as myself. Aside from this groundbreaking movie, I had never heard of nascar, and for the most part, would have limited knowledge of its existence and surrounding subculture for another fifteen years. continue reading…

On this, the opening day of Major League Baseball, I am harkened back to the days of my youth. The time when I lived, breathed and bled everything baseball. It wasn’t only the impending start of my own season; it was also the time that the new baseball cards were coming out from a variety of companies. Being the budding entrepreneur that I was, I kept close tabs on all of the star players like McGwire, Canseco and Strawberry, with the hopes of my baseball cards gaining value.

In retrospect, this was a somewhat innocent time, circa 1987-88, long before steroids and PED’s became commonplace jargon. Had these recent revelations of the past few years occurred in my youth, I might have taken it quite personally and have felt an emotional “crushing” to know that my “idols” were somehow cheating the game that I loved. This was the time of the Oakland A’s dominance and I worshiped the so-called “Bash Brothers;” Canseco and McGwire. I had their posters, collected their baseball cards and persuaded my parents to buy me anything related to the A’s and to the Bash Brothers. In essence, I was simply a young and naïve child who bought into the hype machine, desperately seeking heroes who I could someday emulate. continue reading…